Letter to the editor: Gold's column leads to many questions

Regarding the column by Cliff Gold ["Take a Deep Breath, Iowa," Nov. 10]: The most obvious question is from his statement that "85 percent of the American citizens have comprehensive health insurance." Then why in the world are we overhauling the complete system?

The next question is about Gold's assurances that government programs for seniors won't affect them in "any negative way." Well over a half trillion dollars will be cut from Medicare - ostensibly from waste and fraud. A good portion of that "waste" is going to have to come from reduced payments to doctors and care providers under the guise of cutting wasteful payments. The reality of that is that there will be cuts to seniors and there will be doctors and care providers who discontinue accepting Medicare patients. Does that still mean that seniors should "quit worrying"?

Gold states that "a small number of people think they have good coverage when in actuality they don't." If it's a small number, why are so many policies - millions - being cancelled because they are not deemed good enough?

Gold's comments that uninsured people use the free clinics, community health clinics and charitable providers, etc., are true. Most of that is paid for by charities, volunteers, individual donors, hospitals and care providers, and some of those costs are passed on to other consumers. The Affordable Health Care Act is also going to pass on costs to other consumers, such as maternity costs, younger people paying more for older people, and everyone paying more for pre-existing conditions. So the costs are passed on either way. The difference is one is government mandated and one is mostly volunteer. It doesn't change the cost, other than adding the additional administrative and bureaucracy costs.

Finally, does coOpurtunity Health, the company Gold is with, benefit more with Obamacare or without this new health care law? That is an important disclaimer we should know when considering his presentation.

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Letter to the editor: Gold's column leads to many questions

Regarding the column by Cliff Gold ['Take a Deep Breath, Iowa,' Nov. 10]: The most obvious question is from his statement that '